Large, sparsely populated, cross-hatched with picturesque backroads where you can gently cruise for miles without seeing a car or village, France is a mecca for two-wheeled tourists, and a cycling holiday is an ideal way to explore Provence while enjoying superb food and drink.

Not only does the country boast the major event in the international cycling calendar, the Tour de France, but you will everywhere see teams of keen local amateurs puffing along on their vélos (bikes) in neon-coloured lycra livery.

But touring Provence by bicycle need not be a similarly sweaty ordeal. Cyclists are treated with respect and not for nothing is the French nickname for a bike la petite reine: the queen of the road.

There are many excellent general websites dedicated to cycling in France and worldwide. Some of these are mentioned below, but probably the best place to start when planning a holiday is freewheelingfrance.com, which is packed with valuable advice and feature articles. It, though, is a general site covering the whole of France. The article here gives tips specific to cycling in Provence.

A variant way of cycling through France is by Vélorail, a sort of giant bicycle that runs along a railway track. Click here to read about Vélorails in Provence.

Where to Cycle in Provence

If you are seeking a organised trip, various companies offer guided and self-guided tours with pre-booked accommodation and planned itineraries.

Based in France and founded in 2003, Cyclomundo, the sponsor of our cycling page, has devised a number of routes through Provence tailored to different interests.

They might take you along the Côtes du Rhône vineyards, the lavender fields of Haute Provence, the Camargue with its amazing wildlife or the Roman ruins in the countryside around Arles, as well as a "gastronomic tour" including local food and wine producers.

Cyclomundo has an easy-going trip designed for families with young children (visiting family attractions en route), as well as longer, more challenging itineraries. Each tour is calibrated on a one-to-five scale, depending on its length and the type of terrain.

The advantages to doing a cycling holiday this way include insider knowledge of the best roads, restaurants and hotels, local back-up and - very attractively - luggage transfers which mean that you won't be dragging all your bags up the provençal hills.

The websites of local tourist offices, all of whom are extremely keen to attract cyclists, are another valuable resource - although obviously each organisation will be promoting only routes within its own region.

The département of Vaucluse is the clear leader here - the maillot jaune, or yellow jersey, if you will - with an impressively well-developed and comprehensive English-language website that's a mine of information on bicycle taxis, bike hire shops and so on. Click here to view Vaucluse's cycle tourism website.

It suggests a range of GPS maps and itineraries, and themed véloroutes taking in everything from wine and lavender to ochre and hilltop villages (villages perchés).

The tourist offices for the other départements of Provence have prepared their own equally seductive cycling routes, but have not yet translated all of these areas of their websites into English.

The Alpes de Haute Provenceoffers both on- and off-road cycling (the latter, a speciality of the region, is VTT or vélo tout terrain in French) through such tourist attractions as the Gorges du Verdon, as well as mountain biking.

Of course both these regions also have hills and mountains aplenty, and if this is a deterrent rather than an attraction, you might consider the département of Bouches du Rhône.

The eight routes on the Bouches du Rhône cycle tourism website include the Camargue, where the terrain is as flat as a pancake. Many areas of the Camargue are barred to motor traffic and cycling is one highly effective way to get close to the extraordinary wildlife you will see there.

On the other hand, it will be hot in summer. The open marshlands are particularly exposed to wind and are a breeding ground for mosquitos.

Another, slightly more energetic circuit proposed on the Bouches du Rhône cycling website takes you through the hills of Aubagne: Marcel Pagnol country.

Cycling in the calanques of Marseille remains popular. Off-road biking there is still permitted following the establishment in April 2012 of a new National Park in the calanques, although freestyle (free ride) biking is prohibited.

In spring each year the little town of Cassis hosts a major cycling event, the VTT Offroad Provence-Alpes-Côte-D'Azur, which informally marks the beginning of the cycling season in Provence. It includes a series of races open to everyone, including children, and at all levels of ability. The 2013 VTT Offroad PACA was held on 16-17 March.

When To Go

In southern Provence, in the middle part of the day during July and August, temperatures can often soar to over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). So be sure to programme in a long lunch-break if you plan to tour the area during this period.

You would be unlucky to encounter rain in high summer (it can rain heavily in spring or autumn, however). But there's nothing much you can do to dodge the Mistral, the fierce north-west wind which can roar down the Rhône valley and surrounding areas.

It might blow up at any time of the year, unless you confine your itinerary to the eastern parts of Var and the Alpes de Haute Provence.

Heavy traffic will be a hazard in the popular tourist areas during school holidays and the roads are best avoided altogether on the two weekends which bracket the grandes vacances, the period of summer when most French families take their break.

Watch out, too, for the Tour de France, when roads will be closed off for the race (and there may be road maintenance works on the route in the run-up to the event).

Announced in October 2013, the route for the 2014 Tour de France, pictured, will, as expected, only skirt the north-western edge of Provence during the 15th stage between Tallard, in the Hautes Alpes, and Nîmes, in Languedoc-Roussillon, where the riders will arrive on 20 July. The dates of the full Tour de France are 5 July to 27 July 2014.

The 2013 Tour de France marked the 100th anniversary of the Tour de France and the victor was Britain's Chris Froome. It was the second year in a row that a British cyclist won the Tour de France after Bradley Wigginsbecame the first Brit to do so in 2012.

Nouvelle: The British director Stephen (The Queen) Frears is working on a new film about the disgraced Tour de France multiple champion Lance Armstrong.

Partly filmed on location in the Hautes Alpes, the film, known currently only as Untitled Cycling Project, stars Ben Foster and charts the rise of the pro-cyclist through the 1990s and early 2000s, battling cancer as he and his fellow American teammates dominate and change the quintessentially European sport of cycling.

Winning the Tour de France an unprecedented seven times, Lance retires as one of the great sporting heroes of our time, worth millions of dollars. David Walsh, a sports writer played by Chris O'Dowd, is at first charmed by Lance’s charisma and talent. But he gradually comes to believe the world is being sold a lie...

Hotel accommodation is at a premium on the coast in high summer. On the other hand, if you are planning to camp, bear it in mind that camping sites are likely to be closed from November to March (and will be, in any case, less than inviting at this time of year).

Wild camping is something of a legal grey zone in France, tolerated in some areas, strictly forbidden in others, especially in the Calanques National Park (pictured) at all times of year and other parts of southern Provence which are vulnerable to forest fires in the middle of summer.

Where to Eat and Sleep

French restaurants, especially in rural areas, tend to follow strictly codified opening hours: 12.00 to 2.00pm (or even 1.30pm) for serving lunch and 8.00pm to around 10.00pm for dinner. Sunday and/or Monday closing is widespread.

Shops are also likely to be closed for lunch - and, in Provence, lunch often lasts significantly longer than in other parts of France. Think three hours rather than one.

Arm yourself with a picnic if you won't be able (or don't want) to eat out at these fixed times. The local markets will be an endless source of mouth-watering provisions.

www.warmshowers.org is an international website whose members (including several dozen in Provence) offer free hospitality to cyclists.

How To Travel To Provence With A Bike

Provence is an awful long way to get to by bike if you are starting out in the UK or northern continental Europe. So, unless you are planning to spend weeks on the road or to rent a bike once you arrive (see below for details of where to rent a bicycle in Provence), you will want to bring your trusty steed down by train, plane or bus.

By rail: Folding bikes, or bikes that have been dismantled and bagged, can be taken free of charge on Eurostar. There is a charge for taking unbagged bikes or for sending them as registered baggage (the latter is a slightly cheaper option). Click here to see the guidelines to taking bikes on Eurostar trains.

Once in France, things get more complicated. As the FUB (Fédération Française des Usagers de la Bicyclette) not very enlighteningly summarises it, "Carrying your bike on board trains can be either free, or forbidden, or require a mandatory reservation." However, the FUB website supplies a very useful summary of the rules about taking bikes on French trains.

By plane: You should check with your individual carrier what its policy is about taking bikes on a flight. Both EasyJet and Ryanair will transport bikes and other sports equipment at an additional charge.

Nice airport has a dedicated bike assembly area in the arrivals lounge, complete with tools, but Provence airports such as Marseille, Avignon and Toulon have yet to follow suit.

By bus:European Bike Express transports cyclists to mainland Europe with their vehicles towed in a specially designed trailer. It operates four routes, one of which skirts northern Provence (Valence and Orange) before veering west into Languedoc and Spain.

In Marseille, E-bike Tours Marseille runs small-group or private guided tours by electric bike. Several routes are available, and the guides will take you down back-streets away from the traffic and talk about Marseille's colourful history when you stop for breaks.

Tours last between two and a half and four hours and are offered in English as well as French. Spanish, Italian and Russian are possible on request. The price (from 35 €uros) includes bike hire and use of a helmet and fluorescent jacket. Baby seats and child trailers are available at a small extra charge.

Many French cities organise an annual Fête du Vélo, a Festival of Cycling, on the first weekend in June, during which a wide variety of fun activities aim to reclaim the road for cyclists.

A second annual event in Marseille (and a handful of other French cities) is the Vélotour, a guided group ride in late September that takes participants to famous and little-known landmarks, many of them opened especially for the occasion.